


Dream, Voice

by NoOneFrUkingCares



Series: It's always those who don't care who change the world [4]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Character Study, Fluff, Hearing Voices, Love, M/M, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22674697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoOneFrUkingCares/pseuds/NoOneFrUkingCares
Summary: The universe weaves a gentle web of voices and people. Baekhyun doesn't know exactly where he stands in it, but he can learn.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai, Huang Zi Tao | Z.Tao/Oh Sehun, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Lu Han, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Lu Han, Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Wu Yi Fan | Kris, Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Lu Han
Series: It's always those who don't care who change the world [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1428763
Comments: 14
Kudos: 29





	Dream, Voice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lyssa_kei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyssa_kei/gifts).



> First things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY [KT](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kei_song)!!!! (edit: you jerk now I have to go through all my fics and change the links because you changed your dumb name)
> 
> I love you more than anything in this world, and I am glad you liked your birthday present (even though it's not that good sorry 'bout that).
> 
> (Also if you like ChanBaek, pop over to [her page](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kei_Song/works) because she is such an amazing writer with several amazing ChanBaeks.)
> 
> Second things second, I love soulmate aus. But I just couldn't think of a new way to use one of the ones I truly know and love without turning this horribly tragic, and I didn't want to search up a list of soulmate aus, so I just kinda like made up my own type of soulmate thing.
> 
> Soulmate au: the voice you hear in your dreams is the voice of your soulmate in the moment you meet them.

Deep. Husky. Rich tenor. 

It repeats in Baekhyun’s dreams, a constant background track to the craziest of actions, a song that always says it’s okay. A voice that flutters at his eyelids as he nears waking, a voice that pulls him into the deepest of dreams. Too gorgeous for recordings to truly capture its essence.

His soulmate’s voice.

Everyone is told from birth that they have at least one soulmate, and that claim is proven by the fact that people start hearing a voice they have never heard in their dreams. No one knows why they do, or what that specific person will end up meaning to them, but this way they know how their soulmate will sound the moment they meet them. 

Baekhyun isn’t one of those people who don’t like the idea of soulmates. Who likes to reject the thought that life has a plan and a purpose for people, and see soulmates as the very representation of all that. He’s not really one of those people who are in love with that very concept either, taking pleasure in the thought that they have a meaning, and are not just here to do a few tricks and then die. He prefers to call himself somewhere in the middle, probably able to be convinced of the merits of either side if someone really came down to try and debate with him, but he doesn’t spend too much time thinking about it. 

There’s not much he can change even if he did think too much about it, so he lets it be. Besides, he likes his soulmate’s voice, so if nothing else, he’s grateful that he gets to hear it.

His soulmate must be singing, because voices do not flow like that in speech. They must like to sing, because they’re very good at it, and there’s nothing but love, soft reverence in the tone for the song that they sing. 

Baekhyun likes his soulmate’s voice. That’s probably the first sign that his insistence that he won’t fall in love with his soulmate is false.

~~~

His best friend Jongdae hears two voices. One laughing, a ha ha ha that sounds like the very pinnacle of happiness, and a lower voice, entwined with the first that speaks with mischief, as if it tells the joke that gets the first one to laugh so. Baekhyun can’t hear it himself, because that’s not how things work, but he listens to Jongdae talk about the two entwined voices, and thinks that he sounds a little in love. 

It’s not a bad thing, but sometimes he watches the clouds pass by and listen to Jongdae talk about the way he wishes he could be as happy as the two voices inside his head, or maybe have the ability to hear the joke that gets them both so happy, and wonders what it means for him. Jongdae talks about it in the same tone as the one he uses to talk about his dream to become a teacher, to be better in life, to help others. It’s an admirable dream.

They also wonder who each of the voices will be to Jongdae in the future. Maybe one of them will be the one Jongdae falls in love with. Maybe both. 

Jongdae confesses to Baekhyun one night as they watch the clouds cover the stars that if not for the two voices inside his head, he might’ve fallen in love with Baekhyun in a bit more than the way he loves him now. His voice is thick with the alcohol that the two stole hours earlier, celebrating Jongdae’s 18th birthday on this too warm September night, and as he gets more dazed, Baekhyun’s head clears completely.

If not for the singer, would Baekhyun have fallen in love with Jongdae a bit more too? They fit together so nicely, and yet the universe denies them two together.

Jongdae finds the two voices the next week, walking to class with Baekhyun. The first voice, Kim Minseok, laughs at the second voice, Luhan, and the horrendous pun he just said. They are holding hands. Jongdae’s face lights up at the recognition, and when he hurries forwards to confirm it with the two, they both welcome him warmly into their friendship. 

It would’ve been easy for Baekhyun to fall in love with either of them like he could’ve fallen in love with Jongdae. Luhan is nice, so tenderly nice, supporting everyone in all the ways they need, yet still able to nicely throw back and forth teasing remarks without breaking a sweat. Baekhyun listens to him and thinks that no wonder Jongdae felt that it was such a happy voice, a pretty voice for a prettier face.

Minseok is sharp, mesmerising eyes that can instantly sum up the entire room, and seemingly your entire being when it looks into your own. There’s carefulness present with him, a slight guard that seems to drop only when he’s comfortable, and he speaks and acts like he’s wise, so completely wise. It’s not often that Baekhyun hears him laugh, but every time he does, he thinks that Jongdae was right to wonder why he was so happy in the moment.

But they are a trio, not a quartet. And Baekhyun listens to his singer, and wonders when he’ll meet them in person.

~~~

Soulmate voices don’t all come at the same time. Some people were born with the ability to hear their soulmates, and other people suddenly get a dream the night before they meet their soulmates. 

Baekhyun doesn’t think he was born with the ability, but he’s had it for so long that there’s not really a time that he can recall when he didn’t hear it. Jongdae is the same, starting to hear Minseok and Luhan since 5, around the same time that Baekhyun met him. 

Drunk Jongdae joked that the universe panicked, suddenly giving Jongdae the ability to hear his soulmates because it was scared that he would think Baekhyun was his soulmate. Baekhyun wonders why it didn’t make them soulmates. Life might’ve been easier if Jongdae was his soulmate.

As it is, life is easier because Jongdae is his friend, so he won’t complain too much. 

They meet Kyungsoo in Introduction to Painting, and Baekhyun quickly makes him into a friend. Kyungsoo doesn’t hear any voices, and Baekhyun wonders for a few seconds if he could properly fall in love with him. It turns out the answer is no, because while he would trust Kyungsoo with his life and kitchen, he won’t be able to even think of kissing him. 

But then Kyungsoo wakes up one morning, and comes to class with the revelation that he heard a voice in his dreams, low, soft, a bit pouty. 

Baekhyun says it’s impossible to be able to describe a voice as pouty.

Kyungsoo argues back that the voice just sounds pouty.

They meet Jongin a week later, and Baekhyun reluctantly admits that Kyungsoo is right.

~~~

Yifan and Junmyeon have their lives sorted out. They live together, file taxes together, have a schedule for who does chores and who cooks. They’re quite literally the most married couple Baekhyun has ever seen without being actually married, but Junmyeon always laughs when Baekhyun points it out.

He says he doesn’t want to get married. Not just yet. Marriage is a heavy title, and he doesn’t want to wear what seems like the burdens of it.

Yifan doesn’t look too sad when he mentions it, probably because they are both very rational and smart adults who have definitely discussed this together, and knows that at the end of the day they will be going home together. 

Baekhyun thinks he likes Yifan slightly better out of the two, but maybe that’s just because he likes that Yifan seems to dote on him a little more. Also he punched a man for Baekhyun once, which does nothing but sky-rocket approval ratings in Baekhyun’s mind.

Eventually, Baekhyun asks how they met, what voice of each other do they have looping in their dreams. They just turn to each other and chuckle, Junmyeon’s hand tightly entwined within Yifan’s.

They aren’t soulmates. 

Yifan hears the gentle voice of Yixing, who seems to try too hard and not enough at the same time, and Junmyeon tells that Sehun’s snark shows up far more times than he would almost wish for it to. But they hear each other too, normal voices in normal dreams without the special memorised tinge of a soulmate’s magical bond attached to it, and sometimes, it would almost outweigh the amount of times they hear their own soulmate. 

Then Yixing sweeps into the conversation about himself and asks Baekhyun to dance, and Baekhyun gratefully accepts, twirling round and round in the hands of someone skilled and very easily showing it. Out of the corner of his eye, Yifan and Junmyeon dance too, far less coordinated than they are in life, but still completely and utterly happy.

~~~

Yixing has three soulmates. Yifan, Junmyeon, and Baekhyun.

Baekhyun hears very rarely of cases where one person’s soulmate is not the other person’s as well, but he cannot help but feel sorry for Yixing, sorry that they are not completely joint soulmates. 

It doesn’t help that Yixing is so ready, so ready to give and give and give and give without taking back. Unreciprocated and giving love. 

Like everything else in life, Yixing takes it in stride. With Junmyeon, he’s long been able to accept that he would probably not fall in love with his soulmates, so he loves platonically. 

Yixing says that he hears Baekhyun laughing, twinkling laughter that seems to rival the sun in the sky. Baekhyun doesn’t ever recall laughing like that, but if Yixing says so, then he’ll believe it. 

They date for a year or two, but they aren’t going to last. Baekhyun knew it from the day he heard Yixing say that he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to fall in love with his soulmates because of Junmyeon. 

Yixing says that Baekhyun could rival the sun, but Baekhyun thinks that Yixing rivals every star in the sky. And he won’t ever stop thinking that, even as they go their separate ways and Yixing grabs the attention, the love, the support, the power that he deserves.

He hears Yixing’s voice singing in his dreams more often too, strumming the guitar or playing on the piano. It almost rivals the amount of times he hears his soulmate, but it never gains the right tinge.

~~~

Zitao is not a shy person. He claims the attention he needs and a little more, and he, with so many people skills, gains networks and connections like he breathes. Baekhyun thinks he envies that. Even more so, he envies the way he loves with his whole heart, and the way that he’s already given it all to his boyfriend, Sehun.

Sehun is a brat. Correction, they’re both brats, but Sehun seems to be a slightly smarter one; calculating with a blink of an eye, and able to always back up Zitao in the way he needs. They’re almost unstoppable together, a sense of paradise that won’t end, and Baekhyun likes their presence, even if it may get to be too much at times.

It’s here that he figures out that he aligns closer with those who want soulmates to know that the universe cares, when Zitao stumbles into his apartment at too early of an hour, tears streaming down his face and in desperate need of a hug after a spat with Sehun. They fight all the time, but they’re usually just all joking teases, never growing bigger than they should be, and always knowing how to keep it in control. But when the fights get out of control, usually one of them breaks first, and somehow it always tends to be Zitao, stumbling off for Baekhyun because Sehun seeks out his other soulmate and his almost husband. 

They get through a day of slow dramas and good food before Sehun caves in first, knocking at the door and asking to come in. Baekhyun makes himself scarce as the two talk, and after a little while, all three of them get to curl up on Baekhyun’s couch, starting the newest hot drama everyone was talking about. 

Baekhyun pretends not to notice the amount of wadded up tissues in his trash can, nor the way the two of them might occasionally sniffle, but they’re still together and holding each other, letting Baekhyun leech off their joint warmth.

Baekhyun realises in the middle of the dramatic car chase scene that he wants not really to love his soulmate, but to be able to just have someone to hug, someone whose hug is entirely for one person, and know how to keep the hug so brilliantly warm and loving as needed, just like how Sehun and Zitao can hold each other without holding back, no need for reservations with all the trust and love they know to share.

Baekhyun wants that. He truly wants that, whether he finds it in his soulmate or not.

A little bit of solid love. To be truly wanted. Maybe that’s all he ever wanted.

~~~

There’s a singer outside the coffee shop, but Baekhyun nearly walks straight past him without blinking, listening to a song with earbuds in. He’s halfway across the street when the song passes, and there’s a pause where he’s suddenly subject to the noises of the outside world. 

The singer’s voice is steady, calm, slow and grounding, somehow still the loudest thing in the mess of sounds that is a city street. 

Baekhyun whirls around to the strum of his guitar, and even as the next song starts, he knows. He practically rips out his earbuds as he turns around and goes back the way he just came, feet nearly stumbling over the curb as he watches the singer instead of where he should be going. 

He doesn’t know what the singer is playing, but he’s handsome, and looks like he’ll be far taller than Baekhyun standing up, and he sings about love and happiness and finding them together, like he still has hope and unwavering belief in the good of the world. 

“Excuse me.” 

The singer stops mid-breath, hands pausing on the guitar a second after his voice does, staring up at Baekhyun with what seems like complete and utter un-suspended belief. 

“Oh. You’re my soulmate.” He whispers, almost hushed, so much so that this seems much more like a voice that could show up in a dream instead of the beautiful singing voice he just demonstrated.

Baekhyun feels the corners of his lips turn up slowly as he nods. 

Jongdae always talked about how he was happy after meeting Minseok and Luhan. He didn’t talk about the way something settles into place with the soft whisper of finally hearing his soulmate’s voice in person.


End file.
